New York Knicks: NBA’s Most Valuable Team

According to Forbes’ annual ranking of NBA teams’ fortunes, the Knickerbockers are now the L’s most valuable team (overtaking the Lakers.) To the shock of precisely no one, LeBron James has been very good for business in Miami, and conversely, very bad for business in Cleveland: “The average NBA team is now worth $369 million, 1% more than last year. But several of the league’s 30 teams have not fully recovered from the recession, and as a result values are still 2.6% below the $379 million peak average they hit two years ago. No player in the 64-year history of the National Basketball Association has come close to having the immediate and profound impact that LeBron James had when he bolted the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat this summer. The King’s move accounted for both the biggest gain and drop in team values: the Heat’s worth increased 17%, to $425 million (seventh among the NBA’s 30 teams), and the Cavaliers plummeted 26%, to $355 million (15th). The Heat sold out their season ticket inventory for the 2010-11 campaign after four straight years of attendance declines. Ticket prices are going up next year and ratings for Heat games on Sun Sports, the Fox-owned regional sports network, have doubled this season. Meanwhile, after winning more than 60 games each of the past two seasons, the Cavs won only eight of their first 45 games this year and owner Dan Gilbert recently announced that prices for Cavs games would be lowered next season. The New York Knicks replace the Los Angeles Lakers as the NBA’s most valuable team, worth $655 million, up 12% from last year. Signing Amar’e Stoudemire has been a big help both on the court and with sponsors. The Knicks sold out their full-season ticket inventory for the first time since the 2001-02 season. The Knicks’ parent company, Madison Square Garden, Inc., signed a sponsorship deal with JPMorgan Chase in September that’s worth at least $30 million a year over 10 years.”